Dana F. Boatman, Ph.D., CCC-A

Hypothesis:
Early recovery of auditory language functions after left hemispherectomy is associated with functional reorganization of right auditory cortex.

Goals:The overall goal of this project is to define right hemisphere mechanisms responsible for early recovery of auditory language functions after left hemispherectomy in children and adolescents. Specifically, we seek to identify systematic changes (increases) in fMRI activation of right auditory cortices associated with the early recovery of speech perception abilities after left hemispherectomy.

Methods:We are using a repeated-measures within subject design to prospectively study children (ages 6-18 years) undergoing hemispherectomy for treatment of Rasmussen's syndrome, a late-onset, progressive, unilateral, inflammatory, neurological disorder associated with chronic seizures. Patients are tested before and after (3, 6, & 12 months) surgery. Using a regression-based model, within subject comparisons, researchers will identify increased right hemisphere fMRI activation correlated with performance on two auditory language tasks (syllable-word discrimination and word comprehension.).